He seems to be improving as a game caller. He's not having a lot of errors or passed balls. He's throwing out base runners. I think this young man got a bad rap early on defensively, and I'm sure he still has a lot of challenges, but if he can call a game and keep his passed balls under 20 per year I think he's a keeper.

26 HR in 338 AB so far this year, with well over a 300 average and a .392 OBP. Those are MVP type numbers over a full year. He is projecting to be a potential 40-45 HR guy, at catcher folks. I will be very surprised if Theo includes this guy in any sort of trade discussions but I bet the phone is ringing.

Tek has value, to bad his hitting slips so much. You can't deny he is good with pitchers. But if Lavarnway can hit MLB pitching it would be great to see him up next year as a a backup to Salty. Have him catch Wake LOL.

I can't help but notice how "lean" the Lehigh Valley and Pawsox players are, reminds me of pre-PED days. Conversely, look at the Michelin Men that ply their trades in MLB teams today. CC and Colon combined tip the scales at 600 lbs. I'm assuming Lavarnway will be at the latest a Sep call-up.

For your information Montero is two and half years younger than Lavarnway. So therefore we can not judge on who is going to be a better catcher in the future between Yankees and Red Sox. Also Lavarnway was a former high school outfielder before converting himself to a catcher at Yale. So meaning he could try to move himself back to OF if he see that Salty improves himself and be the everyday catcher for the next two or three plus years for Boston. Since Lavarnway is a big kid, meaning, he is a perfect fit to play at LF and move Crawford to RF. But I am sure that Lavarnway rather to play catcher, and he probably just hope that Salty fall apart or he hope he can be trade.

I suspect you'll see him in September to get him some Major League at bats, and guidence from Tek. I don't think he'll be here at the start of next year, but as a good insurance in case someone gets hurt. Having him up here this Sept/Oct would be plus for experience at a low stress/low expectation situation.

Sox usually head in this direction. Unless a deal just blows them away, don't expect the Sox to do any block buster deals before the deadline. I'll take Reddick over Beltran at this point, until he proves otherwise that he can't do the job. It's also cheaper and we save our farm for other needs.

Who care whether he can play defense well as long as he can mash?After all, we have two catchers right now, one average and one below average on defense, and neither hit for average.We let our catcher go to Detroit!

I can't help but notice how "lean" the Lehigh Valley and Pawsox players are, reminds me of pre-PED days. Conversely, look at the Michelin Men that ply their trades in MLB teams today. CC and Colon combined tip the scales at 600 lbs. I'm assuming Lavarnway will be at the latest a Sep call-up.

Posted by MarylandFan

LOL....what about jenks? He's not exactly the "after" photo in a slim fast commercial.

Someone forgot to tell Ryan Lavarnway that baseball is supposed to be more challenging as he moves up through a minor league system. He has been on an outrageous run since getting to Triple-A Pawtucket, the culmination of a steady march through the Sox system that has seen him deliver consistent power and production for three straight seasons.

The Sox rave about the strides he’s made as a catcher. His athleticism behind the plate has improved significantly. He has solid catch-and-throw stats on stolen base attempts, he’s committed few throwing errors, his blocking and receiving have made strides, etc. Inside the organization, the Sox believe that he can catch in some capacity in the majors, even as they acknowledge that his signal calling and game management must improve.

That said, the Sox’ assessment doesn’t necessarily correspond to that of other organizations. Some – including multiple NL evaluators – simply don’t believe that he will be able to catch. That assessment, in turn, took him off the table for them as even a second-tier prospect, since an NL club couldn’t take advantage of his considerable offensive talents with a DH role.

On the other hand, one AL evaluator offered his belief that while Lavarnway could be a big league DH right now, he has shown enough progress that his future as a catcher – at the least, in a hybrid C/DH role – cannot be dismissed.

In Response to Yet another HR by the best catching prospect in the AL East... : Ryan Lavarnway, C, Triple-A Pawtucket Age 23 Stats: Triple-A: 33 games, .376/.447/.736/1.183, 11 HR Double-A: 55 games, .284/.360/.510/.869, 14 HR Someone forgot to tell Ryan Lavarnway that baseball is supposed to be more challenging as he moves up through a minor league system. He has been on an outrageous run since getting to Triple-A Pawtucket, the culmination of a steady march through the Sox system that has seen him deliver consistent power and production for three straight seasons. The Sox rave about the strides he’s made as a catcher. His athleticism behind the plate has improved significantly. He has solid catch-and-throw stats on stolen base attempts, he’s committed few throwing errors, his blocking and receiving have made strides, etc. Inside the organization, the Sox believe that he can catch in some capacity in the majors, even as they acknowledge that his signal calling and game management must improve. That said, the Sox’ assessment doesn’t necessarily correspond to that of other organizations. Some – including multiple NL evaluators – simply don’t believe that he will be able to catch. That assessment, in turn, took him off the table for them as even a second-tier prospect, since an NL club couldn’t take advantage of his considerable offensive talents with a DH role. On the other hand, one AL evaluator offered his belief that while Lavarnway could be a big league DH right now, he has shown enough progress that his future as a catcher – at the least, in a hybrid C/DH role – cannot be dismissed.Posted by --------TheBabe

I get a kick out of these die hard Tek fans "like harness" who try and bash the kids catching ability because they just don't want Tek to be the odd man out at some point. I guess they forgot how average a catcher Tek was in his first few years with the Sox.

Ryan already has a better arm and and potentially better bat than Tek. I think we can wait for the other things to improve as they did with Tek over a long and successful career.

Tek has value, to bad his hitting slips so much. You can't deny he is good with pitchers. But if Lavarnway can hit MLB pitching it would be great to see him up next year as a a backup to Salty. Have him catch Wake LOL. Tek will most likely end up coaching, hope he stays on with the Sox.Posted by soxmeister

Who care whether he can play defense well as long as he can mash? After all, we have two catchers right now, one average and one below average on defense, and neither hit for average. We let our catcher go to Detroit!Posted by Alibiike

VMart is NOT a FT catcher and wasnt that good when he was...were better off this way...I think its time to move on..

In Response to Re: Yet another HR by the best catching prospect in the AL East... : I get a kick out of these die hard Tek fans "like harness" who try and bash the kids catching ability because they just don't want Tek to be the odd man out at some point. I guess they forgot how average a catcher Tek was in his first few years with the Sox. Ryan already has a better arm and and potentially better bat than Tek. I think we can wait for the other things to improve as they did with Tek over a long and successful career.

Posted by craze4sox

I agree. harnass' school girl like crush on tek is pretty disconcerting.

Harness makes a lot of sense to me. The Salty/Tek combo has worked great this year, defensively and offensively. By alternating catchers, Francona gets the best out of both and doesn't have to worry about either one getting tired.

Tek just caught 16 straight shutout innings on Sunday and another shutout on Wed, which tells me that he can probably be the backup for one more year--and a good one at that. He's good for the pitchers and for Saltalamacchia too.

Reportedly, Lavarnway, despite a great work ethic, is a long way from being a bonafide MLB catcher. His hitting says he needs to move up to Boston soon, but in what slot? Catching is covered pretty well. DH and 1B are too. Ditto 3B. The outfield? Reportedly, he's a little slow. Plus the Sox are not developing him for anything other than catching or DH'ing.

I think he is the long term replacement for both Ortiz and Varitek. He could catch 1 in 5 games and DH the other 4.

If we don't have Ortiz in 2012, I don't think Lavarnway is solely the DH. I could see Lavarnway DHing and catching 40% of the time. In that scenario, though, we need a 3rd catcher, so if Varitek doesn't mind seeing very little playing time, I could still see him on the club in 2012.

I don't know if that's the ideal scenario, though - it's easy to get carried away with how great Lavarnway has been this year, but it may be years before he can put up Ortiz-like production, if he ever does.

Montero has been out of the lineup the last couple of days; I wonder if that is an indication there is a trade in the works. Montero is a top 5 prospect - they think one day he will put up Ryan Lavarnway numbers :)